


QaF-US Ficlet/Drabbles: "Good Boy" (Justin, Daphne)

by justinlovesart



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-23
Updated: 2010-06-23
Packaged: 2017-10-10 06:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justinlovesart/pseuds/justinlovesart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A pre-series story about Little Justin and Little Daphne, told in ten drabbles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	QaF-US Ficlet/Drabbles: "Good Boy" (Justin, Daphne)

  
  
  
  
  


**Entry tags:**

| 

[my fic](http://justinlovesart.livejournal.com/tag/my%20fic)  
  
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Written for this [](http://community.livejournal.com/drabylon/profile)[**drabylon**](http://community.livejournal.com/drabylon/) prompt:  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/justinlovesart/pic/0002tgqt/)

**Good Boy**

1.  
"Again!" Justin demanded, because it was the best song in the world. Ever.

"Yes, again!"

Jennifer looked through the rear-view mirror and smiled. The children were giggling, safely strapped to their respective seats. Daphne's white-socked foot was tapping lightly against Justin's.

"But we've sung it all the way from Pittsburgh!" Jennifer complained.

"One more time," Justin pleaded. Daphne nodded for emphasis.

"Fine. Just once more. But you must promise you'll be good while you stay at Granma's."

"We promise!" Daphne assured her.

Jennifer cleared her throat, then started: "_In the town... where I was born... _"

The kids joined her.

2.  
The house was a little smaller than Justin remembered, but Daphne thought it was a castle.

"Are there horses?" she asked Justin, whispering, after he'd freed himself from Granma's hug.

"No. But there's a pond." Then, to impress her: "With ducks."

They had cake and lemonade outside, but Granma drank her tea from a tiny china cup.

Jennifer made them promise they wouldn't touch those cups, because they were easy to break.

When they said goodbye, Justin heard Granma say: "Make sure he treats you right," and Jennifer nodded.

He was so glad when Daphne shouted: "Come Justin: a puppy!"

3.  
He wasn't a puppy, Grandma explained, just a scrawny little dog that visited her when he was hungry.

"What's his name?" Daphne enquired at the same time as Justin asked "Can we pet him?"

"I don't know that he has a name, and no, don't get too close, yet: he doesn't know you."

As Granma went to get some food, Justin whispered something to Daphne, who smiled and said "Yes!"

When Granma came out, he insisted to walk to the dog with her, Daphne a few steps behind. "Here's your dinner, Gus," he said, as he put down the dish.

4.  
Granma called them three times before they stopped chasing ducks.

They wore pajamas and drank warm milk by the open window. Granma's drink looked like honey.

"Such beautiful children," she said, "two adorable angels. But a little mischievous, I hope." Then, after a long sip, "Will you get married when you grow up?"

"NO! YES!" they shouted together.

She laughed, and it was time for bed.

"Goodnight, Gus!" Justin said through the window.

Granma looked surprised: "Is he still there?"

"Yes, but he growls when we try to pet him."

Before falling asleep, Justin asked: "What does mischievous mean?"

5.  
They were not allowed in the pond, but they could play in the plastic pool when Granma was in the garden.

"Let's splash Gus!" Daphne decided.

"Yes, but only a little, or he'll run away."

They splashed him gently, and Gus walked back and forth between his shade of choice and the pool in the sun. He barked at them, wagging his tail.

Granma was sitting on a recliner, a wide straw hat covering her head.

"What are you doing, Granma?"

She showed them her sketches of them. They looked at each other, then again at the drawings, in amazement.

6.  
"I was never that good," she said looking through boxes she kept in her room. "But your mother, Justin, oh, she had real talent."

The room smelled sweet, like those pink and lilac-colored bottles in the bathroom.

He and Daphne would spray them at each other, while Granma was preparing lunch. But Daphne was sleeping now.

"Here, sit next to me," Grandma called him to her bed. "Look at this." She opened an album of drawings, so many of them, in pencil and colored and then many more: you needed brushes for those.

"So very good," Granma repeated, and sighed.

7.  
"Gus next," Daphne declared, "but first, you draw me."

So Justin did. He put pencil to paper and outlined the pigtails, dark and curly; then the big ribbons that held them together. He hoped Granma had pink pencils, because he wanted to color them right.

Daphne pretended to drink tea from a china tea cup ("Nonsense," Granma had said, when she'd heard they weren't allowed to touch them, and had filled one with orange juice).

"Draw a little crown, too," she added, because she was still certain they were in a castle. "I'm a princess."

"A mischievous princess," Justin agreed.

8.  
"Can Gus come in?"

Granma looked at the dog and then at the sky, heavy with clouds that promised a summer storm.

"Only if you wash him first."

"We must give him a biscuit for that!" Justin said and ran into the kitchen.

Gus would still growl and not allow to be petted, but he didn't run away for fear of some water and scrubbing. He'd spent all afternoon barking in tune with Daphne and Justin's song: _"we all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine..."_

That evening he sat by Granma's feet, and Justin drew them together.

9.  
They were all busy saving ducks from Gus who was chasing after them, when Jennifer's car pulled through the gate.

Justin was the last to walk towards her when she stepped out of the car, but he was the one who held her the longest.

"Have you been a good boy?" she asked him, softly.

He hugged her tightly and nodded against her breast. "I've learnt how to draw."

Later, he showed her his sketches of Princess Daphne, Gus and the ducks, Granma asleep, and the one he'd done of Jennifer, by heart.

"This one," he explained, "is a _watercolour_."

10.  
When they left, Justin and Granma exchanged drawings and she demanded a kiss. He gave her big one, and bit her on the earlobe. "Ah, my mischievous angel," she said, smiling.

They drove back to Pittsburgh at night, through streets he'd never seen before.

"Are those boys holding hands?" Daphne asked, yawning.

Jennifer said yes. "It's Liberty Avenue," she added, but the kids were too tired to ask what it meant.

Justin glanced out, still thinking Grandma and Gus standing next to each other as they waved goodbye.

He saw blue and orange lights and fell asleep, dreaming of watercolors.


End file.
